The invention relates to software user interfaces.
An application program graphic user interface (GUI) eases interaction between the application and a user. Programmers build an application GUI by assembling and tailoring prefabricated GUI controls (controls) found in libraries such as the Microsoft Foundation Class (MFC) library. Controls, such as buttons and scroll bars, implement predefined behaviors that a programmer can alter and supplement. A programmer can add a control to an application GUI through a visual development tool (e.g. Visual C++) or by entering instructions that call the control procedures.
A dialog panel control (dialog) produces an image of a box that includes other controls. Dialogs can be modal. A modal dialog prevents a user from interacting with application controls other than those associated with the dialog until the user closes the dialog.
Programmers can add dialogs to their user interface to display and receive data from conceptually related items. For example, a drawing application might display a dialog when a user wants more information about a drawn object. This dialog might display the drawn object's attributes such as the drawn object's color and size and allow the user to alter them.
Dialogs that include a preview control are known as previewable dialogs. A preview control, often a check box control labeled "preview," allows a user to see the effects dialog controls will have before closing the dialog. For example, a user might want to alter a drawn object's color through a dialog. By turning the dialog's preview control ON, the user can select different colors and see the object rendered in each color before settling on a particular color.
Developing previewable dialogs sometimes requires substantial programming effort. For example, some development environments require the programmer to write special procedures to support previewable dialogs.